The Key (86 page)

She pauses briefly.

‘The guardians decided to use the Key,’ she continues. ‘They too wanted the portals closed but failed to foresee a side effect. They tend to be blind to their own weaknesses. Only in the fifteenth century, when the sixth portal was closed, did they begin to see the connection.’

Matilda looks very serious.

‘The guardians don’t belong in this world. For each closed portal, a connection to their original world disappeared, and with it some of their power. That’s why they’ve grown weaker and weaker through the millennia. If I had closed the last portal, they would have died.’

‘Last thing they’d have wanted,’ Linnéa says.

‘Indeed,’ Matilda agrees. ‘They became completely obsessed with finding a solution to their dilemma. How to close the portal to the demons without losing the last of their power. And they found an answer. Their new insight was that, if they split my powers, by the next magic epoch, a new aberration would occur. Instead of one Chosen One, a Circle would make up the Key. One witch for each element. And one who would have none. A witch without any connection to the magic system of this world. Someone in whom the guardians could invest all their power. A kind of magic anchor.’

‘Minoo,’ Anna-Karin says.

Matilda nods.

Anna-Karin already knew that Minoo was unique in that she could handle the magic of the guardians.

But it makes a great difference to know that the guardians
created
her for that purpose. Not to save the world but themselves. To hang on to their powers through her. As if Minoo was an object, a tool they could use.

A tool that they’re using right now, Anna-Karin thinks.

‘It wasn’t enough for her to exist,’ Matilda goes on. ‘The guardians had to persuade Minoo to let them in, to accept their powers willingly. To make her give in fully, they had to isolate her from you.’

Anna-Karin is sick at heart. The guardians have manipulated them and got their own way every time.

‘The guardians can remain in this world if Minoo is with you when you close the portal,’ Matilda says. ‘When you do, the magic balance will be disturbed again. The elemental magic will be further weakened and the power of the guardians stronger than ever before. Next, they will take over mankind as they have taken over Minoo. Every human being will become a toy for the guardians to play with until they get bored. They will become fed up with their games, sooner or later. Nothing is as boring as absolute power.’

Matilda falls silent and Anna-Karin suddenly becomes aware of the song that is playing. She recognises it. Mum used to play the record when Anna-Karin was little.

‘Look, I’m pretty new to all this,’ Elias says. ‘But can’t we just leave the portal?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ Matilda says. ‘Once Minoo entered the Borderland, she brought with her
all
the power of the guardians. Now the magic balance has shifted in the Borderland as well. And that makes it possible for the demons to get in. Which is precisely what they are trying to do now.’

Anna-Karin tries to make sense of all this. The Chosen Ones should save the world. But now they have to choose between two types of destruction. Either let the demons ruin the world straightaway, or let the guardians do it when they have had enough of their puppets.

‘It seems the guardians have won, then,’ Linnéa says. ‘And we are just pawns in their game.’

‘That’s not true and you must never think that!’ Matilda sounds very determined. ‘The guardians have taken risks throughout. They have forced you into practically impossible situations and, every time, you’ve got out of them on your own merits. They haven’t been able to predict everything you’ve done and you have a free will! It is thanks to your skills and courage and solidarity that you have succeeded in—’

‘What does all that matter?’ Linnéa interrupts. ‘We still have no other options!’

‘Yes, you do,’ Matilda says. ‘Close the portal without Minoo in the Borderland.’

‘How do we do that?’ Ida asks. ‘Do we shove her into one of the lit-up spots and hope she doesn’t get back from wherever before we’ve closed the portal?’

‘There is only one way to deal with this,’ Matilda says gravely. ‘Together, you are stronger than the guardians. Together, you can kill Minoo.’

A wind blows through the trees in the parkland and rips a straw hat decorated with sunflowers from the head of a young girl.

‘Never,’ Anna-Karin says.

‘Not a fucking chance,’ Linnéa says.

‘The guardians have taken her over completely,’ Matilda says. ‘I believe there mightn’t be anything of your Minoo left—’

‘Listen,’ Ida butts in. ‘This isn’t up for discussion.’

‘And Minoo is still somewhere in there,’ Anna-Karin says.

She refuses to consider anything else.

‘We’ll think of an alternative,’ Vanessa says. ‘You can help or not.’

‘There’s nothing more I can do for you,’ Matilda says. ‘Or for the world. I gave up my powers long ago.’

Grey veils of mist are gathering around them.

‘I hope you can find that alternative,’ Matilda tells them. ‘I truly hope so. Just remember that the fate of the world hangs on what you decide.’

The mist is rising.

Then, suddenly, Anna-Karin catches sight of something through the haze.

A couple, a man and a woman, are leaving the dance pavilion. They walk close together, with their arms around each other.

He looks better in real life than in the photos. He is a little shorter than her, his wavy hair is dark blond and his eyes a deep, clear green. Her long hair is pulled back in a ponytail and her smile is the same as Anna-Karin’s own.

He whispers something in her ear and she laughs. Deep inside Anna-Karin a memory awakens. That, sometimes, when she was very little, Mum would laugh like that.

They pass by so close that she can smell Mum’s perfume. She watches as they walk, wrapped up in each other, towards the gate.

And then the mist closes in around her.

The tone from the portal vibrates in Minoo’s body. She stands in front of it and could reach out with her hand into the opening. Take a step forward into it. It is as tall as she is and widening steadily. Millimetre by millimetre, the greyness of the zone is corroded and replaced by blackness.

Only Minoo can see the movement in the deep dark. Inside the portal, the demons are writhing, desperate to get in. And they will; it is only a matter of time. Now, after thousands of years, they have a chance to enter without the help of one of their blessed ones.

Minoo is attracting them, as a positive charge attracts a negative.

Once, they were the same.

Rebecka and Nicolaus have stopped behind her.

‘I hear them,’ Nicolaus says quietly.

‘Me, too,’ Rebecka says.

Minoo senses their fear. And she registers the whispered messages the demons send into the heads of Rebecka and Nicolaus. They try to frighten them by saying that they can’t close the portal, that the guardians are tricking them, that all they need to do is to do nothing at all.

‘Don’t listen to them.’ Minoo blocks the demons’ magic so that it can’t reach Rebecka and Nicolaus.

Now she hears the voices of the demons inside her own head and senses their loathing.

You betrayed your own kind. You permitted yourselves to change, to become degraded. You formed alliances with beings
that were far below you. You gave yourselves a name. You even dared give us a name. How can we be named? Perfection can’t be contained within a name. Your very existence is an insult to us. We will destroy you. We will destroy the pathetic world you are hiding in. We will exterminate you and then forget that this failed experiment ever existed
.

Minoo knows that it could happen.

They have seen it happen in innumerable possible futures.

She remembers one of these futures that didn’t come to pass.

The gym in the school. Olivia smiles. The glow of the ectoplasm circles brightens and she holds out her hands. Sparks and flashes of lightning criss-cross the hall. The Chosen Ones die, pinned to the floor. Olivia feels their souls and their powers flow into her and now the PE members, her slaves, are falling like dominos. Their combined life-force is so strong that it opens up the tear and allows free passage into the Borderland. Filled with the souls drawn from the Chosen Ones, it is easy for Olivia to find Rebecka. And the demons keep their promise to her. She does meet Elias again. She meets him only to discover that it means nothing to her any more. Nothing at all, for something in Olivia has died. So, when she has taken his soul and let the demons in, all she wants is to be wiped out.

There have been many possible futures in which the demons have won. There still are.

Minoo sees them now. She sees what the outcome will be unless the Chosen Ones come back in time to close the portal.

The demons will pour into the Borderland as clouds of black smoke that only she can see; that she will glimpse only for a moment before the demons consume her. Then they will rush through the Borderland, through the tear, and flow through the world like an invisible wave. They will suck up the energy of all living things. It won’t take them long, a few days at most. And the world will be dead, down to the smallest micro-organism.

But there is still hope.

Suddenly, Minoo senses familiar energies.

She turns to look.

The others are back and Matilda is with them.

Nicolaus calls out when he sees her and Minoo registers his feelings. Joy, grief, guilt. This sense of guilt that people seem to carry around always.

He goes to Matilda.

‘I did everything you asked.’

‘I know.’ Matilda looks tenderly at him.

She will not tell him that the words were never her own, Minoo realises.

But she has told the Chosen Ones. She has told them everything that Minoo didn’t want them to know. She has even suggested to them that they should kill Minoo.

As she stares at Matilda, anger grows inside her.

How could the guardians in the Borderland have allowed themselves to become so useless? It was of the utmost importance that they should keep Matilda under strict surveillance but, no, they let her run away and now she has disturbed all their plans. This very moment, Minoo hears Linnéa tell Rebecka everything by thought-transfer. Minoo would like to punish Matilda by annihilating her, but she doesn’t want to alienate the others more than she already has. They are so short of time.

‘But I’m not sure if I did the right thing,’ Nicolaus says. ‘I’m not sure that the guardians want what’s best for us.’

‘You only wanted to do good, Father,’ Matilda says. ‘We must leave now.’

Tears are trickling down Nicolaus’s cheeks as he looks at the Chosen Ones. He doesn’t dare ask them to forgive him. And they haven’t forgiven him for lying to them, Minoo senses that. But they try to, especially Anna-Karin.

‘We understand why you did it,’ she tells Nicolaus, because she can’t let him go believing that they don’t.

Nicolaus looks at her with loving eyes, then at the others. But when gazing at Minoo, love is mixed with worry.

‘Do not lose yourself,’ he says.

‘He is right,’ says Matilda, who is standing next to him. ‘If you’re there, Minoo … you must resist.’

You understand nothing
, Minoo thinks to her.

Matilda doesn’t show any fear. She turns to the others.

‘You are stronger together. Don’t forget what I told you.’

They won’t kill me
, Minoo thinks.

Then why do you look so scared?
Matilda replies without pausing.

Then she goes to Nicolaus who takes her in his arms. She leans her head against his chest and he puts his hand on her head. Both close their eyes and an expression of peace spreads across their faces.

Then, they are not there any more. From one moment to the next, they are gone.

Somewhere, deep inside Minoo, there is a vague feeling of grief. That was the last time she would see Nicolaus. But the feeling soon fades.

She looks at the other Chosen Ones.

Anna-Karin. Elias. Linnéa. Vanessa. Ida. Rebecka.

All seven of them. The Chosen Ones. Together for the first time.

* * *

Linnéa watches Minoo as she watches them, with her back to the portal. Her black hair somehow merges with the dark interior of the gaping hole behind her and her eyes … they look as if the same blackness has invaded them. As if it is seeping out from her pupils.

‘Closing the portal is not a problem,’ Minoo instructs them. ‘All you have to do is form a circle, release your powers and focus them. Listen to each other, adjust to each other. Think of it as a choir that is supposed to hit the same note.’

Take each other’s hands
, Linnéa thinks to the others.
We are stronger together
.

She takes Elias’s and Vanessa’s hand and they all form a chain.

‘Matilda has told us the truth,’ Linnéa says to Minoo. ‘We know what the guardians are planning.’

‘I know that you know,’ Minoo says. ‘We don’t want you to come to any harm.’

Linnéa feels rattled when she hears Minoo talk about herself and the guardians as ‘we’.

Then it hits her that perhaps this is just the guardians talking about themselves. Perhaps Matilda was right. Maybe there is no Minoo left. And, if that’s true, if Minoo is only a shell, a vessel for the guardians …

Then it wouldn’t be Minoo we killed, Linnéa thinks.

Still, the idea feels impossible. This can’t be the way to save the world. It mustn’t be.

‘All we want is to improve you,’ Minoo says.

‘By removing our free will?’ Linnéa asks. ‘Taking away our personalities?’

‘And our feelings?’ Rebecka adds.

‘No,’ Minoo says. ‘Of course you will keep all that. Only it will be … controlled.’

‘Controlled free will? That really makes sense,’ Elias says sarcastically.

‘If the guardians only mean well, why have they tried to hide their plans from us?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Because you don’t understand,’ Minoo replies. ‘I know from my own experience how long it takes to understand. But, once I did … it’s an amazing experience. Does it look like I’m suffering?’